An Attempt at Negotiations

Fran returned to her warehouse and once again pulled out that large stack of refined iron from the corner.

"I need to hand-make a new one again..."

Fran didn't bring her previous Steam Engine, of course; how was she supposed to carry something this big?

So she simply stayed in Elan, letting the apprentices of the Forge School see what a real Steam Engine was like.

When Fran was building the Steam Engine, it took her quite some time. She worked on it for three whole days, and with the time spent preparing the materials, she estimated it would take five or six days in total.

At that time, she spent most of her time drawing blueprints, planning the use of materials, and processing the most time-consuming parts.

At that time, her Mental Power was relatively weak, and she was extremely careful when using the Magic Artisan's techniques, fearing that the precision of the parts she made would not be sufficient.

At that time, she didn't even have the qualities of Master Artisan, and her creations were rather crude.

But now, she not only has this trait, but she can also make the parts stronger and more perfect by just spending some of her Mental Power.

After several upgrades, her Mental Power reached a terrifying level. Now, when using the Magic Artisan's Arts, she is not only faster but also more accurate.

Just like when you're setting things up in a game, you can only set the precision down to the millimeter level. Whether the rest is compliant depends on luck.

However, the current Fran can push the precision to a few decimal places when setting the precision.

In conclusion, Fran's efficiency is now extremely high. She only let the materials fly around for a while, and she easily manufactured many parts.

Then, after about three hours, Fran assembled a small Steam Engine.

Although it only took a short time to make, Fran showed no joy, because she knew this was just the beginning.

She assembled the Steam Engine merely as a reference for her newly created spells; it wasn't the end of the matter once the Steam Engine was built.

Fran placed her hands on the table and began to conceive the basic form of the spell.

"You can refer to the spell structure of [Tool Enchantment] to create the output part of this spell. My [Steam Jet] and [Energy Conversion] can be used to create the input part..."

Of course, if the spell were constructed directly from the three spells she possessed, it would achieve the effect Fran envisioned, but the spell structure would be extremely cumbersome.

Of course, she couldn't let her spell become like that. If it did, it would probably take her ten seconds to cast it.

She could only refer to the characteristics of these three spells to create her own.

She wasn't sure if the combined structure of these three spells would meet her needs; if not, she would have to create a new structure herself.

Fran's first day of attempts yielded no results. She tried many different stacked structures, but no matter how much Mental Power she poured into them, they either wouldn't start or might overheat and burn her hands.

The next day, she specially created a structure to link the three spells, successfully linking them together and channeling them into a single release.

However, because the link she created was too long, it took her a full three minutes to cast the spell.

On the third day, she cut all the redundant structures down to the point where the structure could barely function.

However, new problems arose one after another. The magical structure in her hand was like a pool that was both filling and draining water at the same time. As she poured in a portion of her Mental Power, a portion of it would also be lost.

On the fourth day, she managed to cobble together a spell that could be cast. It was far from useful, but it was still a significant improvement.

Fran channeled her Mental Power into the magical structure in her hand. After Channeling Spell for a mere twenty seconds, it consumed about one-twentieth of her Mental Power, roughly the same amount as when she cast a second-tier spell.

But she ultimately succeeded in casting the spell.

White mist began to appear around her; it was the scene of Water Element in the air turning into a gaseous state after being heated.

Fran could sense that she could no longer control her body through her physical structure, yet it was as if something was assisting her in her actions.

She could feel something resting on her wrists and fingers. She was now controlling her fingers not with the Achilles tendon in her arm, but with this illusory thing providing the force.

She simultaneously used [Hydraulic Power], and her movements began to slow down as she placed her hands on the table.

After she pressed the table down slightly, the table legs creaked under the weight, as if they had shrunk a little.

She raised her hand, canceling the spell, and lifted the table leg, revealing an indentation the size of a table leg on the floor.

Fran was very satisfied with the [Hydraulic Power] spell she had developed, although the spell had to slow her movements considerably.

However, the decrease in speed was more than doubled by her increased strength; her current strength, converted to Panel, is probably over 90 points...

Of course, her satisfaction with the [Hydraulic Power] spell doesn't mean she's satisfied with the spell she just created.

Fran checked her Panel and found that there were no newly created spells on Panel, and she even saw the information that the proficiency of the three spells had increased.

It's easy to see just how bad Fran's newly created spell is.

She simply canceled the spell and then sat down to think about how to optimize it.

After much thought, she finally came up with a better optimization method: using materials for spellcasting.

Fran took out a dark, square object from a box in the corner; it was coal, which Fran had bought specifically for this purpose.

She used the coal as a material for her spell, and then a miracle happened: her channeling time was reduced to less than fifteen seconds, and her Mental Power consumption was also reduced to a certain extent.

"Indeed, material casting is a very useful method that has been used since the birth of mages."

For newly developed spells like Fran, whose spell structure hasn't been optimized yet, using materials to assist in casting can have a significant effect.

Those spells whose structures are optimized to the extreme are useless except for certain spells that can consume materials to increase their power.

"Next, I just need to gradually optimize this spell until it appears on my Panel..."

Fran looked at the clock in her hand. It was a clock she had made herself, and she had even used her Star Gazing Art to consult many books on clocks.

"It's almost time."

Fran sat down in the chair and began reciting the incantation to enter the Spirit Realm; her consciousness began to rise.

This was the date Fran had agreed upon with Ophelia, who seemed to represent the Astrology School. She first arrived in the Radiance Domain.

When she arrived, Lyle was already waiting at the door of her house.

"My Proxy, this is something the Deity want me to give you."

Lyle wore a necklace with round, white beads that shone like Gem but had a glassy texture.

Fran reached out and took the necklace, then put it on around her neck. As soon as she put it on, she heard a voice.

"You're a bit slow..."

Fran looked at Lyle before her, still refraining from directly refuting the Lord of Radiance at this moment. After all, maintaining the Lord of Radiance's face would also benefit her, but...

"Actually, you can just say it to me in your mind; you can just attach your Mental Power to the necklace."

Without hesitation, Fran directly imbued the necklace with her Mental Power.

"I'm not late..."

"We're late, let's hurry up, I feel like the Alliance members are waiting."

Fran was about to glance at the watch on her wrist when she realized she hadn't Spirit Realm it, so the watch hadn't come to the Spirit Realm with her.

Under these circumstances, Fran had no choice but to obey the Lord of Radiance's orders. After saying a few words of farewell to Lyle, she stepped out.

She took out a Spirit Realm Guide she had prepared beforehand, which Fran had bought at the market immediately after hearing the name of that realm.

Just as Fran was about to recite the incantation and use the Spirit Realm Cruising Method, the Lord of Radiance's puzzled voice rang out in her mind.

"Oh right, don't I remember you being a mage in the Alliance yourself?"

"Yes."

"Then we still have to negotiate with the Alliance mages, wouldn't that mean...?"

"That's not how it works. First of all, I don't represent the Alliance, and neither does the other the Alliance. We're just both mages who represent the Alliance."

"Within the Alliance, there are certain differences between different mages. On this matter, I have no reason to stand on the same side as the other side, because it is also in my interest."

"If I weren't Proxy of the Lord of Radiance, they definitely wouldn't have given me so many good things..."

"Oh! I see. Let's go then."

Fran immediately recited the incantation and arrived at a realm whose name sounded like the territory of the Alliance — the Law Domain.

Just as Fran had thought, this realm was indeed related to the Law School. When she stepped into this realm, she felt a suppression from the Law spells.

"The entire realm is like a giant spell; is this the achievement of the Law School?"

Fran looked down and could feel herself standing on a huge inscription that covered almost the entire realm.

Fran then looked up and saw a building that was about a hundred meters tall, with some lower-looking white buildings next to it.

Fran frowned slightly as she looked at the scene before her.

"Why are there so many people? Is this a special area opened up by the Alliance?"

Ahead of Fran, she could see over a thousand people in the square with just a cursory glance, which gave her some idea of the specific function of this realm.